Glory to mankind

Soul Calibur became a franchise known for its strong guest characters after the second game where Link from The Legend of Zelda, Heihachi from Tekken and Spawn from well... Spawn appeared in each of the different console versions where it has become a bit of a staple ever since.

The most recent entry in the series, Soul Calibur 6, released earlier this month though we knew that Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher franchise would be the first crossover character coming to the fighter, and now we know who the second guest character will be.

She's certainly a popular character in online gaming circles — just take a look at SC6's Create a Soul characters — though there's still plenty out there who have no idea who she is, so we're going to go over her history a bit today. I've personally spent around 80 hours or more with Nier: Automata and also received a large portion of the game's 26 different endings — yes you read that right — though I won't be diving too deep into the story to avoid spoilers.

Essentially 2B is one of the playable protagonists of the action-RPG Nier: Automata which was released in 2017 from Square Enix and Platinum Games. The title has received high praise from fans and critics alike for its blend of meaningful storytelling and Platinum-style action gameplay leading to Automata selling over three million copies as of June 2018.

YoRHa No.2 Type B is her full name, and she — like all of her comrades — are androids living in the year 11,945 A.D. She is built specifically for combat and to serve in the war against the machines that have essentially taken over Earth who were sent to the planet by aliens, but things aren't quite that simple.

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Swords large and small, spears, fists, flying combat armor and more are all part of 2B's arsenal in Automata. Most of her weapon types appear to have carried over into Soul Calibur 6 in some fashion as her reveal trailer shows with her ability to change them on the fly.

Coming straight from a Platinum game, her attacks are very fast and multi-hitting, and the YoRHa androids can also throw their weapons away from their bodies and slightly control them in the air with something akin to telekinesis before it returns to their backs to give them even more range.

Each combat YoRHa unit also travels with a small flying machine called a Pod which assists in fights by shooting projectiles and uses a variety of stronger attacks which work similarly to spells from the original Nier game. You can see one of them in her final attack of the trailer where a line of spears emerges from the ground to impale Astaroth.

2B can also self-destruct and come back in a new body though I doubt we'll see that as a mechanic in Soul Calibur 6.

The character

Nier: Automata begins with 2B as a fairly cold individual notably stating "emotions are prohibited" during the game's first mission and is a loyal YoRHa member whose task is to eliminate the machine threat no matter the cost it entails for her.

9S serves as her partner for most of the game who works to get 2B to open up more during the course of Automata's story which goes through many twists and turns during their escalating missions.

There is no explanation given as to why 2B has traveled back over 10,000 years into the past / why the Soul Calibur cast has been transported to the distant future in the trailer, but this may be her first time interacting with "normal" humans since the androids' creators fled to the moon to escape the machine invasion while waiting for YoRHa to win their war.

We don't have a release date for 2B yet, but she will be part of Soul Calibur 6's season pass alongside Tira and two other characters though Bandai Namco did release some new screenshots of her which you can see up above. If any of this / heavy existential philosophy sounds interesting to you, I highly suggest giving Nier: Automata a shot or check out Mr. Clemps' breakdowns of the entire Drakengard / Nier series.